Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how the sugars on US nutrition labels are calculated by the manufacturers, and how inaccurate these tend to be? My personal trainer is trying to get me to radically increase my protein intake and up my carbs a bit as well, and she's given me several different protein bars, shakes, etc. to try. I looked at the carb counts on 'em and went "eek!", but she said I shouldn't worry as long as the sugar counts are low -- the rest is complex carbs, and that's what I need to be eating to get up to 75-80g.

To make a long story short, they've sent me straight to blood sugar hell -- energy rush, followed promptly by hunger, headaches, sweet cravings, and general blah-ness. So I went over the ingredients pretty thoroughly, and I'm really suspicious about the accuracy of the labels. The worst offenders are Parillo Bars, which claim 35g total, of which 3g is fiber and 3g is sugars -- but the first ingredient on them is brown rice syrup, which is 50% maltose! Detour Bars also did a number on me -- 25g total, 9g of sugars, but the chocolate coating's first ingredient is honest-to-God sugar. Is there any possible explanation for the low sugars, besides a flat lie?

I'm ditching the bars and shakes, because I felt less crappy eating too few carbs than I do eating these things. However, I'd still like to know what's up here, just so I can explain it to the trainer. She took away my strawberries and cottage cheese because of the fructose/lactose, replaced them with the stupid bars -- based on this experiment, I want them back!